The Lotus Position

[John221]

Does anybody meditate using this position?

If so, how on Earth do you manage to keep it up?

Is it possible to simply get used to meditating in this posture, if I try and adopt it often enough, or do I need to study yoga for several years so that I don't cause myself an injury?

[gertie]

just sit in a position that is comfortable for you. if full lotus isn't comfortable, use indian style or half lotus.

[John221]

I usually do; I'd just like to be able to accomplish the full lotus properly, 'cause I'd feel like a right proud smartarse. :D

[gertie]

you have to work your way to lotus position.

[BlackBillBlake]

It depends on your body type, flexibility etc. Some people find this posture easy to adopt, others virtually impossible. It's not a good idea to force the body into any posture that gives discomfort, and certainly not worth it to impress others.

If you want to meditate, just assume a posture that is comfortable, without strain and relaxed. Meditation is not a question of gymnastics.

[John221]

True, true.

[cerridwen]

I've done the lotus position for meditation, but I've found that I'm usually more comfortable just laying down...

[tiki_god7]

if yuo're only trying to achieve the lotus position to satisfy your ego, you're like contradicting the whole point of doing it

[John221]

You're right, I was being rather unwise.

[tiki_god7]

its cool, I can't help but wish it was something I could sit in for a couple hours and look like a real yogi and all

[SvgGrdnBeauty]

I've done the lotus position for meditation, but I've found that I'm usually more comfortable just laying down...
I can't do that...everytime I lay down to meditate I fall asleep! lol. So I usually sit up on my bed in Indian Style because its the easiest way to sit up straight and still be comfortable...

[gdkumar]

Hare Krishna!

Dear all,

Whatever position one takes for meditation it is absolutely important to ensure that your spine and neck(Head) are on one straight line(Aligned). Comfortable position is absolutely necessary to arrest diversion of your mind towards the body's pain or discomfort.

It should also be ensured that too much of a comfortable position does not put you to sleep like SGB(Pl don't mind Nicole, just joking) when she tried to practise in lying down position. Actually it is a long drawn process of training your mind to deviate it from long- used to material things to some totally new and initially a very dry and seemingly non-existent subject.

However, initially what seems to be very difficult and boring becomes your most favourite and easy thing. It becomes a part of your daily routine and you cannot do without it. Please give it some patient time. Nothing else on this earth can be more beautiful, desirable and rewarding when you start getting the taste of successful meditation.

Love and best wishes,

Kumar.

[Kharakov]

I find that if I fall asleep while meditating, God will zap me to get my attention. I don't really worry about whether or not I am concentrating on meditation, it just happens, like breathing.

[SvgGrdnBeauty]

It should also be ensured that too much of a comfortable position does not put you to sleep like SGB(Pl don't mind Nicole, just joking) when she tried to practise in lying down position. Actually it is a long drawn process of training your mind to deviate it from long- used to material things to some totally new and initially a very dry and seemingly non-existent subject.
Hehe...I don't mind...I actually find it quite amusing... but after four or five times of waking up the next morning and realizing that I had fallen asleep I found another comfortable (sitting up) position that works for me. :)

And I agree with you about missing it when its gone...a few times I've done homework late into the night and just crashed and burned and when I've woken up in the morning...I felt a bit disoriented...and for some reason I have trouble meditating in the morning...at night is much better for me...

[Bikshu]

its cool, I can't help but wish it was something I could sit in for a couple hours and look like a real yogi and all
Make sure you knees are lower than your hips, sit on a cushon. Oh, and I'd tell you to abandon that thought if you want to be a realy yogi, but I still have thoughts like that myself.

[BlackBillBlake]

Make sure you knees are lower than your hips, sit on a cushon. Oh, and I'd tell you to abandon that thought if you want to be a realy yogi, but I still have thoughts like that myself.
The question that occurs to me is how does a 'real yogi' look?

[John221]

The question that occurs to me is how does a 'real yogi' look?
Like Paramahansa Yogananda?

[BlackBillBlake]

Like Paramahansa Yogananda?
If so, then I've never seen a picture of him in the lotus posture.

Really though the point is that if you take up yoga for egotistical reasons - want to impress your friends etc, you will only waste your time.
No white person is ever going to look like an 'authentic' yogi.

[Bikshu]

but some white people ARE authentic yogis

[SvgGrdnBeauty]

If so, then I've never seen a picture of him in the lotus posture.
There's one in Autobiography of A Yogi...when he was younger...

[BlackBillBlake]

but some white people ARE authentic yogis
I fully agree - but they still look like westerners.
People have stereotypical images in their heads, and think a yogi should look like this or that - an Indian with a long beard and a mass of matted hair sitting in padmasana on a tiger skin, stuff like that.
But yoga is all about inner consciousness not outer form. In fact , it's not really feasible in the west to adopt the Indian type of culture in some aspects. How out of place Hare Krishna devotees used to look dressed in light cotton dhotis in Oxford street in the middle of an English winter. Yet they dress like that precisely because they want to look like Indians. Not a very useful or practical approach.

[BlackBillBlake]

There's one in Autobiography of A Yogi...when he was younger...
Right - all the photos have fallen out of my copy I'm afraid!

But of course, Paramhansa Yogananda was a great yogi.